When Alternate World's Collide
by Sinister Slayer
Summary: Did you ever wonder what it would have been like if certain things were done differently on Buffy and Angel. Full summary inside.
1. Prologue

**When Alternate World's Collide**

**Summary**: Did you ever wonder what it would be like if certain things were done different in Buffy and Angel? What if Faith never went bad in season 3 of Btvs? What if when he turned human in season 1 of Ats he didn't ask the oracles to change back time and he stayed human? What if Faith wasn't able to stop Angelus in season 4 of Ats and he turned her? What if Buffy, Spike and the others weren't able to stop the First at the end of season 7 of Btvs? How much different would things have been if these things happened? That's what you're going to find out. Takes place mid to late season 5 of Ats.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own any of the characters from _Buffy The Vampire Slayer_ or _Angel The Series_.

**Feedback**: Yes please!!! I loooove feedback whether it's good or bad I don't care I just like to know what you think so let me know. Thanks.

**Prologue**

"You have the apartments all set up?" Angel asked.

"Yes boss," Harmony responded. "I told you I've got it all under control."

"Four rooms, two with one king size bed and two with two queen sized beds?" Angel asked nervously.

Harmony rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Yes boss. Everything is all set. You don't have to worry about a thing."

"Is our boy getting all flustered again about our guests coming to visit?" Lorne asked as he walked up to the two vampires.

"Yes!" Harmony answered with frustration. "I keep telling him that everything is all set up and everything is going to be fine but he's just so overly paranoid."

"I am not!" Angel protested.

"Yeah well you know how he gets when it comes to you know who," Lorne said to Harmony acting as if Angel wasn't even there.

"Hey I do not get…" Angel tried to interrupt.

"Boy do I," Harmony responded to Lorne. "If you ask me I think he just needs to take a big chill pill."

"I'm standing right here!" Angel yelled agitatedly.

Lorne finally acknowledged Angel. He turned toward him and put his hand on Angel's shoulder. "Look Angel cakes you really don't have to worry about a thing. My little Harmonica over here has gotten all of the arrangements arranged and everything is set. There's no need to be a mister worrypants."

Angel sighed and rolled his eyes. "I know, but I am…worried…not a worrypants. I'm worried. She didn't agree with my decision and after that whole thing with Dana, the slayer, I wanted to prove to her that I made the right choice. I finally convinced her to come to see everything and I just don't want anything to go wrong."

"I know," Lorne said sympathetically. "You just have to relax though big guy. They're gonna be here soon and like I said before everything is all set up and fine. I know you're nervous about seeing her again but you have to be cool, confident. You have to show her that you have everything under control."

Angel nodded his head. "You know what? Your right. I've just gotta show her I've got it all under control. I can handle this," he added trying to sound less nervous then he really was.

Lorne smiled and patted Angel on the back. "That's the spirit cupcake."

As Lorne was about to walk away Gunn approached the group. "Is the boss freakin out again?"

"Yup," Harmony responded.

"I am not freaking out!" Angel, getting frustrated again, responded.

"I've gotta go kiddos," Lorne said as he started to walk away again. "Harmony would you care to walk me to my office?" Lorne asked as he held his arm out to her.

Harmony smiled at the green demon, nodded her head and took his arm in hers. "I'd love to Lornytoons."

As Gunn was about to open his mouth to say something to Angel, a very nervous and frantic looking Spike walked up to the two friends. "Are they here yet? They're not here yet right?" Spike asked nervously.

"No," Angel responded with annoyance, "They're not here yet."

Spike gave a sigh of relief. "Good…I'm not ready for this. I mean she doesn't even know I'm alive. What is she going to think? What is she going to do?"

Spike had been going crazy ever since he learned that she was coming. She didn't even know he was back. He had been afraid to tell her. After the exit he made the last time they saw each other he was afraid that coming back and revealing himself just wouldn't work. He had no idea how she was going to react to seeing him. He hopped that she would be happy and that they could just pick up where they left off but he knew the chances of that were slim to none. And then there was the Angel problem.

Angel rolled his eye. "Hopefully ask you to leave," he said under his breath.

"Hey I heard that!" Spike stated angrily.

Angel was very excited, nervous and annoyed all at the same time. The last time he saw Buffy he felt that there was a small possibility that he'd have a chance with her again and now she was coming to visit him.

He was nervous though. She wasn't very happy with his decision to come to Wolfram & Hart so he had to prove to her that it was a good decision. Even though he still wasn't even really sure that it was.

He was annoyed at the fact that Spike was there. He knew that when Buffy fought the First, she and Spike had gotten very close and that thought bothered him more then he liked. Deep down he feared that when Buffy found out Spike was back she would wrap her arms around him and his heart would shatter into a million pieces. He just wished that Spike had never been sent to LA in the first place.

Gunn just laughed at the two souled vampires. "Are we going to have to put the two of you in separate rooms when they get here?"

The boys simply glared at each other and at the same time crossed their arms over their chests.

"Look," Gunn continued, "If you guys wanna make a good impression on Buffy you'd better just cool it and try to at least pretend like you get along. I'm kind of excited to meet these people. I've always heard so much about them and I'm one of the only ones who's never met them. Well, besides Faith and Willow. I think we're all going to have a good time here so don't mess it up," he ordered as he pointed to the two vampires.

"Where are Wesley and Fred?" Angel asked Gunn.

"They should be here soon," Gunn responded. "I think there's something going on between those two," he said with a small smile. "Have you seen the way they've been looking at each other lately?"

Angel smiled back and nodded his head slightly. "Yeah, I've seen it."

"I see it now," Spike added as he pointed to the stairs where Wesley and Fred were walking down arm in arm.

The other two turned to see the couple walking towards them smiling and laughing.

"Hey guys," Fred greeted. She looked around the room. When she saw that their guests weren't there yet she smiled. "Good we didn't miss them getting here."

"Nope," Gunn confirmed. "They should be here any minute though. I was just trying to calm these two panicked vampires."

"Hey!" Angel and Spike said at the same time as they glared at Gunn and then at each other when they realized they said the same thing at the same time.

The five friends didn't have to wait much longer. They turned as they heard a group of people coming out of the elevator and into the lobby of the large law firm.

Willow, Xander and Kennedy were the first to walk out of the elevator with their arms linked, Willow in the middle of course. Dawn and Andrew were the next to walk out and then finally Faith, Robin and Buffy walked out of the elevator behind them.

Angel and Spike swallowed hard as they watched Buffy walk into the large lobby smiling and laughing with Faith. If they're hearts could beat they both would have been racing with the anticipation of seeing their old love.

When Buffy spotted the two souled vampires her face of laughter and smile changed to a face of fighting back anger. A look of worry appeared on both of their faces. They looked at each other as if to ask which one of them Buffy's anger was being aimed at.

They soon found out when she marched straight up to Spike.

He took in a deep, pointless breath. "Hello Buffy, I bet you didn't expect to see me here," he attempted to joke.

Buffy didn't laugh. Instead she smacked him hard right across his face. "Oww!" Spike yelled. "What the hell was that for?"

"You've been back for what...four or five months now and you didn't tell me?!" Buffy yelled.

"Well I was going to…" Spike tried to defend himself but Buffy cut him off.

"I mourned for you and this whole time you've been safe and sound here in LA?!" she continued.

"You did?" Spike asked happily.

"You did?" Angel asked disappointed and slightly disgusted.

Buffy pointed to Angel sternly. "You…don't even start!" Just as Spike was about to laugh at Angel getting yelled at, Buffy changed her direction to Spike. "And you…don't sound so happy about it!"

"How did you even know?" Spike asked.

"Andrew told me," Buffy answered.

Spike glared angrily at Andrew. "Oh thanks Buffy. What happened to the finding a different answer to that question plan?"

"It was your plan Andrew…I never agreed to it," Buffy responded. She turned her attentions back to Spike. "Listen Spike I'm still angry with you but yelling at you isn't what I came here to do so I'm going to stop that now. And despite my extreme anger…it is good to see you," she said with a slight smile creasing her lips towards the end.

Spike smiled back at her. "Well that's good to hear. It's worth getting yelled at."

"Well then," Wesley said as if to break the tension. "Why don't we introduce you all to those of us you don't know and then show you where you'll be staying?"

"Sounds like a plan," Buffy agreed.

Wesley introduced Buffy and the others to Gunn and Fred and then showed them around the building. Angel, Spike, Fred and Gunn also joined Wesley in giving the tour but Angel and Spike didn't speak up much. Buffy figured it was probably because they were just as nervous about seeing her as she was about seeing them. Either that or they were just scared of getting yelled at again.

After the tour, Wesley and the others showed their guests to their rooms. Buffy and Dawn were in a room with two queen sized beds. Xander and Andrew were in the other room with two beds right next door and Willow and Kennedy and Faith and Robin were right across from them in the rooms with one king sized bed in each.

It was still fairly early in the night but the gang had flown all the way from Rome and were exhausted. They said goodnight to their hosts and then went to bed. There would be plenty of time for catching up and exchanging pleasantries tomorrow.


	2. The Portal

A/N: I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who reviewed! I wasn't expecting so many wonderful reviews from just the first chapter. Thanks so much and I hope you all continue to enjoy the story! This one is kind of like another introductory chapter but don't worry things start to get really interesting in the next chapter…and at the end of this one.

**Chapter 1 – The Portal**

Angel franticly put his paper's he was working on away and grabbed for his coat. He was so irritated. Of course something like this would happen when Buffy was visiting. Of course he would have to go off and investigate a weird portal in an abandoned warehouse. It was just so typical.

Just as Angel was about to walk into his personal elevator, Buffy walked into his office. "Morning," she said starting out cheery and then moving to confused. "Did I catch you at a bad time?"

"Buffy…no…I just got a call about something strange downtown that I need to check out," Angel responded. "I'm really sorry I know we were supposed to do stuff today but hopefully this won't take long."

"Why don't I just come with you?" Buffy suggested. "I'm no stranger to strangeness."

"I don't want you to have to do that," Angel responded insistently. "I mean in a way this is kind of like…a vacation for you and I don't want you to have to do any work on your vacation."

Buffy looked at him disbelievingly. "Are you kidding? I've been on vacation ever since we defeated The First. I could use a little action."

Angel looked down at the ground as he tried not to think about the different ways that last statement could be taken. Buffy's mouth hung open as she realized how that came out.

"What I mean is…I could be your back up. Back up Buffy…I'm on top of you." Her face dropped once again as she realized the mistake she had made as more awkwardness fallowed every word she spoke. "It!" she quickly tried to recover, "I'm on top of…it."

"Right…so we should go then," Angel said quickly before the situation got anymore uncomfortable.

"Good idea," Buffy agreed as she fallowed him to the elevator.

"So what kind of strangeness are we going to be up against?" Buffy asked.

Angel pushed the button in the elevator for the first floor. "Possibly a portal of some kind. My informant just told me the address of an abandoned warehouse. He said that someone heard unnatural sounds and saw streaks of light almost as if there was a storm inside the warehouse."

"Sounds like a portal alright."

"Hopefully it'll be easy to close."

"Yeah who knows what might come out of it…or has already come out of it," Buffy added with a bit of worry on her face.

"Good point," Angel agreed. "We should probably patrol the area a little after checking out the portal if you're up for it?"

"I'm up if your up," Buffy responded just as she realized that, once again, what she had said could be taken in the wrong way. "I'm just going to stop talking all together."

Angel smiled and laughed a little. She smiled back at him, feeling slightly embarrassed, as they walked to his car.

XXXXXX

"Alright Spike just calm down," Spike told himself as he prepared to walk into the lobby where everyone was supposed to be meeting this morning. "Sure she was a little pissed at you but she mourned for you I mean that's gotta mean something right?"

He took a deep, pointless breath, shook off the tension and calmly and coolly walked into the lobby where everyone except for Angel and Buffy were assembled. Spike's calm and cool look changed to confusion when he noticed that Buffy wasn't there.

"Hey there nibblet, where's big sis?" he asked Dawn as he walked towards her.

Dawn smiled as Spike approached the group. She was happy to see him. She missed him a lot after what happened. He had always been there for her even before he had a soul.

"She just called actually. She went to Angel's office to get him and then about five minutes later she called and said for us to go about our plans without her because she was checking something out with Angel."

"Oh bloody brilliant," Spike practically yelled with a roll of his eyes in annoyance. "Did she say where they were going?"

"She just said there was some kind of disturbance in an abandoned warehouse downtown," Dawn answered. "She said something about a portal or something like that."

"A portal?" Fred interrupted after overhearing their conversation. A look of extreme worry took over her features.

Knowing that portals were a touchy subject Gunn stepped in. "It's probably nothing. Otherwise Angel would have told us about it."

Fred nodded her head uncomfortably. "You're probably right," she lied. Ever since she got sent to a different dimension she had always been a little on edge whenever mention of a portal came up.

"So what's on the agenda for today Wesley?" she asked trying to change the subject.

"Well last night we gave you all a short tour of our facilities but I thought we might show you things in more detail this afternoon," Wesley answered with a bright smile on his face. He just loved playing tour guide. "We'll show you the lab in more detail and we can show you our library of recourses. Then I thought we might go out and catch up on old times."

"Sounds like a great plan to me," Willow said with a bright smile on her face. She loved stuff like this. She hadn't stopped talking about the lab since they had their tour the night before. She also couldn't wait to catch up on things with her old friends. She could tell that something was going on between Wesley and Fred and she couldn't wait to get the details from them.

"Sounds good to me too," Dawn agreed. She didn't really care much what they did. She was just excited to be there and to be included in everything. "What do you say Spike? Are you…?" She started to say but stopped when she realized he was gone.

"Don't take it personally," Gunn told the confused looking Dawn, "He does that a lot."

"Well then," Wesley said to get the attention back on him again, "Shall we start with the lab?"

XXXXXX

Buffy and Angel had just pulled up to the warehouse and gotten out of the car. The car ride there had pretty much been silent and uncomfortable. Neither one could really think of anything to say. Small questions were asked like, "So how have you been?" or "How about this weather huh?"

As they walked towards the warehouse entrance Angel finally thought of another question to ask. "So how come Giles couldn't make it?"

"He's actually a very busy guy now," Buffy answered. "He and a few others started up the watchers council again. They have a lot of slayers to watch out for now."

"Yeah, that's understandable."

They reached the entrance of the building and Angel pulled open the sliding door. Cautiously, he and Buffy walked in, eyes pealed and ready for anything that might jump out at them.

They walked around a little and everything was silent. Then Angel heard something. Something was behind him, he could feel it. He braced himself and then quickly turned around, ready for whatever he might see.

"Went on a mission without me ah partner?"

Angel exhaled with relief and also a little annoyance. "Spike. I am not your partner and what are you doing here?"

Spike smiled at Angel's obvious discomfort of his presence. "The little bit told me where you two were and I thought you could use a hand."

"Well we don't, we have it under control so you can go now," Angel said with aggravation in his voice.

"I think I'll just stay," Spike said with a smile. "Just incase either one of you needs me for anything," he added as he looked at Buffy suggestively. This just angered Angel even more and Spike knew it, but he thought it best to just keep his mouth shut.

Spike nodded his head toward Buffy in hello, "Buffy."

Buffy just stood there and giggled slightly at the two vampires. "Spike," she greeted back. "How the two of you actually work together…I'll never know. Now would you two girls like some alone time or can we get to this portal thingy?"

Spike just looked at Angel and shook his head with disappointment. "Seriously Angel…let's get on with it then," and then he walked toward Buffy. They both started walking farther into the warehouse leaving Angel looking dumb founded with his mouth wide open. He quickly shook it off and caught up to the other two.

The three of them walked farther into the warehouse side by side with Buffy in the middle. When they got to the center of the large building was when they finally saw it. About twenty feet above their heads was the portal.

It looked kind of like a tear in the fabric of reality. Small lightning like flashes emanated from the spot and a small electrical snapping sound could be heard faintly.

Angel couldn't help but notice how similar it looked to the portal that Connor had come through about a year and a half earlier.

"Right then…what do we do now?" Spike asked as he looked up at the portal in awe of it.

"Well I think it's safe to say it's definitely a portal," Buffy responded.

Angel pulled out his cell phone, still not taking his eyes off of the portal. "We should call Wesley. I think he needs to see this."

"Good idea," Buffy agreed, her eyes also still fixed on the portal.

Before Angel had the chance to dial Wesley's number something started to happen with the portal. The snapping sound grew louder and it appeared that the portal itself was getting bigger. The lights were getting brighter and four objects of even brighter light started to appear within the portal.

"Umm…what's going on mate?" Spike asked Angel nervously.

Angel's mouth was wide open in anticipation. "I'm not sure, but get ready. It looks like something's coming through and we have no idea what it's going to be."

Buffy, Angel and Spike readied themselves into fighting positions as they waited for the creature, or creatures, to come through the portal. They stepped back a few steps but they were ready for anything.

Suddenly the four lights got brighter and seemingly out of nowhere four female figures dropped down from the portal. All four landed on their feet skillfully.

Spike, Buffy and Angel shielded their eyes until the bright lights disappeared. When the light dimmed and they were able to see the four figures more closely they couldn't believe what they saw.

The girls were all wearing different clothing but they're facial features were almost exactly the same. They all had blond hair, green eyes and they were all exactly the same height. They landed exactly the same way and they even had the same exact expressions on their faces. They had the same exact expressions on their faces as Buffy had on her face.

Angel and Spike looked at each other, then at Buffy and then at the four girls in front of them. Buffy just stared at the girls, mouth wide open, in disbelief.

"This is impossible," Buffy finally said. "They're…me. They're all…me."


	3. Five Buffy's

Note: Hello all! First of all I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have read and reviewed this story. You guys are awesome! Second of all…obviously with 5 Buffy's things are going to get really confusing. I'm going to try my best to make it the least confusing as possible. As I go along with the story I'm going to put in parenthesis how I'm going to differentiate between the Buffy's. The original Buffy of the story will still just be Buffy but the other four will have numbers with their names to distinguish them. For example they will be Buffy1, Buffy2, Buffy3 and Buffy4.

**Chapter 2 – Five Buffy's**

As they tried to take in the situation, the five Buffy's, Angel and Spike just kind of stood there looking around at each other in disbelief. The four Buffy's that had just come through the portal just kept looked at each other and at Buffy with extremely confused looks on their faces.

The Buffy on the far right (Buffy1) wore black pants, a red sleeveless t-shirt and high rise boots. Her hair was wavy like Buffy's but a little shorter. She seemed to be the cleanest and most put together of the four. She was also the one that looked the most similar to the real Buffy.

The Buffy next to her (Buffy2) had straight hair, pulled back in a loose pony tail sloppily as if she put it up in a rush. She wore blue jeans, plain white shoes and a white top with a visible food stain on the shoulder. Of all the newly arrived Buffy's she looked the most worried about the situation she was in.

The next Buffy (Buffy3) had a different look about her all together. She wore black leather pants and a tight black shirt that showed cleavage that Buffy didn't even know she had, with a short black leather jacket over it and healed black boots. Her hair was crimped, dark blond with lighter blond highlights and her face looked a little paler then the others.

She too looked well put together as if she spent a lot of time on her look but it was a completely different look. One that Buffy herself would never really wear unless she was planning on going out to work the street corner. She was wearing way too much makeup and there was something in her eyes that made the original Buffy cringe.

The last Buffy to the far left (Buffy4) looked tougher and more muscular then the others. Her face was hardened as if she'd been through hell and back. She wore brown cargo pants, a white tank and a pair of dark colored sneakers. Her cloths were slightly tattered and dirty and she looked as if she hadn't showered in a few days. She had a small scare on her upper lip and her hair was straight and in a ponytail similar to Buffy2's but pulled back a little tighter so as not to let one stray hair fall into her face.

"What the hell is going on?" Buffy2 finally asked nervously but still with composure to show that she wasn't afraid.

"Umm…I think you…Buffy's…just came through a portal luv," Spike answered with a lingering confused expression on his face.

Buffy3 just smiled slightly as she looked around. "Well this should be interesting."

Angel's face turned from confused to concerned and defensive. "Vampire," he said as he watched Buffy3 intently.

"What?!" the other four Buffy's said at the same time with extreme shock in their voices as they're eyes turned to Buffy3.

She just shot them all a sinister smile and started laughing. "Damn it Angel…you ruined the surprise. I'm guessing in this reality you still have that pesky little soul problem."

"A problem I'm guessing you don't share," Angel pointed out by the way she was acting.

Buffy3 rolled her eyes, scoffed at him and responded, "Thank God!"

She looked around the room sizing up the people in it. Angel and Spike both had souls. She could smell the disgusting things all over them and could see it in both of their expressions. Realizing that she would be a little outnumbered playing against two souled vampires and four slayers she slowly started to back up in an attempt to get out of there while she had the chance.

"I think it might be a good idea if we don't let that one get away mate," Spike said to Angel as all eyes stuck to Buffy3.

Buffy3 just smiled. "You know what," she began to say as her face changed to that of the vampire, "You're probably right."

She started to take off but Buffy4 jumped in front of her before she had the chance. She tried to turn to her left but Buffy2 was already there waiting for her. Before she knew it all four Buffy's surrounded her and she knew she wasn't going anywhere.

"Four Buffy's against one," she said disappointedly as her face changed back to its human form, "Now this just isn't fair."

XXXXXX

When Wesley hung up the phone he had a very worried look on his face.

"What is it Wes?" Gunn asked him.

During the tour Wesley had been informed that he had a phone call. He and Gunn went to take the call while Fred continued the tour.

"Remember that call that Angel got about a portal?" Wesley asked.

"Yeah."

"Well…something came out of it."

Gunn shook his head in dismay. "So should we mount up? I mean what kind of demon are we talking here?"

Wesley's eyes widened in surprise and confusion at what he'd just heard on the phone. "Actually…not a demon at all," he responded.

Gunn gave him a confused look. "What is it then?"

"Buffy," he responded.

"Huh?" Gunn asked with even more confusion.

"Four of them Angel said," Wesley responded.

"Wait…four Buffy's?" Gunn asked still feeling very confused.

"Apparently," Wesley responded feeling slightly confused himself. "He wanted just you and I to join him but I have a feeling the others will insist on going. We might as well just tell them what's going on and be on our way. Angel said that he would just bring them here but he doesn't want to leave the portal unattended. I need to grab a few books and some chains and shackles. Do me a favor and go inform the others and I'll meet you in the parking lot."

"Got it…wait…did you say chains and shackles?" Gunn asked.

"Yes, Angel requested them," Wesley responded with a perplexed look. "He didn't really say why."

Gunn simply shrugged his shoulders and then the two friends walked out of the office.

XXXXXX

"Wesley and Gunn are on their way," Angel told the others as he walked up to them after stepping out to make his phone call.

They were all in a corner of the warehouse were they could watch Buffy3 easier and still see the portal incase anything decided to jump out of it again. Even though Buffy3 was surrounded and unable to get away she still had the same sinister smile on her face as she sat in the corner and watched the others. It was as if she still felt no fear what so ever. The others just tried to ignore her.

"So what's going on here, Angel?" Buffy asked. "I mean are they like…future Buffy's or something?"

"I'm really not sure," Angel responded. "It's a possibility I guess."

"Well how old are you?" Buffy1 asked as she listened in on the conversation. "It's a good way to find out."

"I just turned 23 not too long ago," Buffy responded.

"Same here," Buffy1 confirmed.

"Me too," Buffy2 and Buffy4 said at the same time.

As much as they didn't even want to include vampire Buffy they figured they should ask her as well. They all turned to look at her. "What about you?" Buffy asked with annoyance in her ton.

Buffy3 looked to the ceiling as if she was thinking very hard. "Yeah I think that's how old I am. You don't really keep track of birthdays as much when you're dead," she added with a smile.

"Well I guess that kills the future theory," Buffy said as she looked back at Angel.

"They're probably from alternate worlds," Spike suggested.

Buffy4 nodded her head in agreement. "It kind of makes sense. I mean we're all Buffy Summers but we're obviously all very different…some more then others," she added as she looked disapprovingly towards Buffy3.

"Yeah but aside from her," Buffy1 said with a nod towards vampire Buffy, "the rest of us don't seem all that different."

"Yeah but I'm betting we are," Buffy2 interjected. "For starters I'm the only one that has a ring on my finger," she added as she showed them the wedding ring that was beautifully placed on the ring finger of her left hand.

"Wow!" Buffy1 said as she grabbed Buffy2's hand to get a closer look at the wedding ring. "Definitely didn't notice that."

"You're married," Angel said as he looked down at the ground feeling slightly upset and disappointed. He knew that if she was married that meant that in her reality she wasn't with him. Even though he knew that things could never work out between them in any reality it still stung a little.

Buffy2 smiled at his obvious jealousy. "Don't look so depressed," she said to Angel. "In my reality…you're my husband."

Angel, Spike and all four of the other Buffy's whipped their heads in her direction with extreme disbelief in their eyes. "I'm sorry what?" Buffy asked as if she didn't hear her correctly.

But before Buffy2 could explain, they heard Wesley, Gunn and the others coming into the warehouse.

"Wow!" Xander said as he walked into the warehouse and joined the others. "Five Buffy's…that is…interesting."

"Did you bring the chains?" Angel asked Wesley. Wesley nodded his head and handed the chains and shackles to Angel.

Angel took them from Wesley and walked over to Buffy3. "Aww…are those for little old me? Really you shouldn't have baby…we have plenty at home."

"Are you bloody kidding me?" Spike said with extreme frustration. "You're married to him in her reality," he said as he pointed to Buffy2, "And your shagging him in vampire world?" he added as he pointed to Buffy3. "This is just bloody ridicules. Is there any of you who aren't with Angel?"

"Well I'm not with either of you remember Spike?" Buffy pointed out in annoyance.

"I'm not," Buffy4 said to Spike with a smile. "I'm not with Angel, Spike. In my world…I'm with you."

Spike smiled as some of his hopes was returned to him. At least one of the Buffy's was sane, he thought to himself.

Angel tired to ignore them all and just focus on chaining Buffy3 to a large pipe but it was hard not to pay attention when they were talking about alternate Buffy's having relationships with him.

Buffy1 was also about to protest and explain that she too was not with Angel in her reality, but with all the new information being handed out she figured she would just leave it alone for now.

"Wow there was way too much new information in there," Dawn said with an overwhelmed look on her face.

"I second that," Xander added with his hand raised in the air.

"We think that they're from alternate realities or something," Buffy tried to explain. "At first I thought maybe they were like future Buffy's or something but we're all the same age. Alternate reality's is the only theory we've come up with that makes any kind of sense."

Wesley raised his eyebrows in intrigue. "It's very possibly that you're correct in that assumption. Many alternate realities exist in other realms."

"Yeah, like the time me and Anya accidentally brought vampire me from a different reality," Willow pointed out.

"Precisely," Wesley confirmed.

"Ok but where do these alternate realities come from? And how did we get here?" Buffy1 asked.

"You mean you didn't come through the portal voluntarily?" Wesley asked with interest.

The other Buffy's shocked their heads. "One minute I'm in my own world and then the next minute it felt like I was just being pulled somewhere and then the next thing I knew I was here," Buffy2 explained.

"Well I'm not quite sure how or why you're all here but alternate realities are formed when something changes, if a different path is chosen or even just a different decision," Wesley began to explain to the group.

"The extremely different ones usually result from something large being altered. For example if Angel and the rest of us never took the job at Wolfram & Hart, I'm sure that alternate reality would be extremely different from one in which I just chose not to go to the grocery store on Thursday. My guess is that they're worlds were a result of something large being altered if they're lives are different from yours," he informed.

"Well so far we know that two of them definitely are," Buffy responded as she glanced at Buffy3 and then at Buffy2.

"Well I guess we should find out a little more about each other then," Buffy4 suggested, "Figure out just how different our lives really are."


	4. Different Lives

**Chapter 3 – Different Lives**

"Well I guess we should find out a little more about each other then," Buffy4 suggested, "Figure out just how different our lives really are."

"Right," Buffy agreed. "So where should we start?"

"I might have an idea," Fred said quietly from the crowd.

"Any suggestions are welcome," Buffy responded.

"Well maybe Lorne could read them," Fred continued. "I mean you could probably find out a lot about them if not exactly what made their lives so different right?" she asked Lorne who was standing right next to her.

"Most likely cupcake," Lorne responded with a small smile.

Buffy3 practically started cracking up. "Oh no…definitely not! I'll have you guys stake me before I'll sing even one little note!"

"Well I guess that means she knows who I am in her reality," Lorne pointed out since Buffy3 knew exactly what she would have to do for Lorne to be able to read her.

Buffy3 smiled. "Yeah…I knew who you were," she responded putting an emphasis on the words 'knew,' and 'were.' That statement frightened Lorne slightly as he started to look very uncomfortable at the thought of being dead in her reality.

"Well there's another good idea right there," Willow said ignoring Buffy3's comments and Lorne's uneasy tension. "We can see who they know out of us and stuff like that. Maybe we can figure out at least around when the big change happened that made their realities different from ours."

"Sounds like a good plan," Faith agreed.

"Ok well vampire girl over there obviously knows Lorne what about the rest of you?" Buffy asked.

Buffy4 raised her hand slightly. "I…knew him," she said with the slightest bit of sadness in her voice. "I never really got to know you all that well but I'd met you before. I know everyone here actually, some better then others."

"I don't know a lot of you actually," Buffy1 responded. "I know Angel, Spike, Dawn, Xander, Willow, Wesley, and uh…Faith." She looked down to the ground awkwardly as she said Faith's name. Things weren't going very well between the two of them in her reality and seeing her standing right there wasn't helping.

As people started to give her weird looks at her obvious uneasiness, Buffy1 continued what she was saying. "The rest of you I've never seen before in my life."

"Same thing here," Buffy2 added. "I only know those seven also. I've never seen the rest of you before."

Buffy rolled her eyes and then looked towards Buffy3. She didn't really want to talk to her at all. Just the fact that she was turned into a vampire in an alternate reality bothered her way more then she'd liked. "What about you?"

Buffy3 just sighed and rolled her eyes. She considered the possibility of just ignoring her or messing with her a little bit but she didn't like this world so she decided she would just play along if it could possibly get her back to her own world that she greatly missed.

She glanced around the room at everyone looking for people she recognized or didn't recognize. Finally she responded, "I know all of them."

Buffy nodded her head. "Well everyone knows Faith and we didn't meet her until senior year so all of the changes must have happened after that unless we met her in a different way."

"We died when we were 16, Kendra was called, Dru killed her, Faith was called, she came to Sunnydale, turned evil and worked with the Mayor we put her in a coma, destroyed the Mayor blah blah blah," Buffy3 recapped with annoyance.

Buffy looked arount at the other three and they all nodded their heads to show that this was the same thing that happened in their realities. That is, all of them except for Buffy1.

"So the changes all happened after Graduation," Angel concluded before Buffy1 could interject.

"I was with you all the way up until the Faith turning evil part," Buffy1 interrupted. "I did die when I was 16, Xander gave me CPR and I was brought back, Kendra was called and killed by Drusilla. Then Faith was called and came to Sunnydale but she never went evil or worked for the Mayor. She helped us take him out."

For a moment Buffy1 looked really confused at what the other's had said. She couldn't believe that in four other realities Faith would do such a thing. Sure she was a bad ass but in Buffy1's reality she just couldn't imagine Faith doing anything to hurt her, well physically at least. Mentally hurting her, Buffy1 knew Faith was capable of. She had experienced it first hand.

"Did I…did she kill a guy?" Faith asked nervously. "The uh…the Faith in your world…did she accidentally kill a guy?"

Buffy1 looked at her with confusion. After thinking about it for a moment she shook her head. "No, never."

"The Faith in my world accidentally killed the deputy mayor and that was what kind of pushed her over the edge," Buffy2 explained slightly saddened by the bad memory.

"Same thing happened in my world," Buffy4 confirmed.

"Here too," Faith admitted with slight disappointment in herself.

"No," Buffy1 challenged. "The deputy mayor helped us. Faith and I were in an alley one night and these vamps kept coming at us one after another and then Finch came out of nowhere and Faith almost…" she trailed off as she began to realize what the change in her reality was.

"She almost killed him," Angel finished for her putting an emphasis on the word 'almost' as he put together the same conclusion.

"I guess that was the difference in my world," Buffy1 confirmed. "Faith never killed anyone. She had her stake in hand and she was about to use it but she realized he was human when the stake was inches away from his heart."

Faith's eyes fell at the thought of this. She was glad to know that in at least one reality she hadn't been a screw up but she only wished she would have allowed herself to make the same realizations back then. If it hadn't been for that fatal moment her whole life could have been completely different.

"Well there we go," Xander said cheerfully, breaking the somewhat awkward silence that was beginning to build. "At least we're making some progress here."

"What about College?" Willow asked in an attempt to find out more information and also to change the subject. For some reason Buffy1 was acting a little weird when talking about the Faith of her world. Willow wasn't really sure what happened between them to make her react that way but she could see the uneasiness was making her fidgety.

"Did all of you go to UC Sunnydale?" Willow continued.

The Buffy's all nodded their heads.

"Well what about Dawn?" Willow continued to ask. "You all said you know Dawn so the changes obviously must have happened after she was sent to you. Either that or she was sent to you regardless of the changes."

"Must have been regardless of the changes since my change was before that," Buffy1 pointed out.

"Oh yeah, that true," Willow said sheepishly.

"Can we get back to this whole Buffy being married thing?" Xander interrupted with curiosity.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Dawn agreed as she turned to Buffy2. "Who? When? How?" she began to ask not really knowing where to start.

Buffy2 smiled and then looked to the ceiling as she thought about it "Angel, almost four years ago, and…well I don't really understand the last question."

"Well I think how is an excellent question considering Angel is a vampire," Xander pointed out.

"He isn't in my world," Buffy2 responded. "He was turned human when his blood mixed with the blood of a Mohra demon. It's blood is regenerative and somehow when it mixed with Angel's it kind of jump started his heart and made him alive."

Angel's eye's widened as he realized exactly what the big change was in Buffy2's reality. He hadn't gone to the oracles to ask them to change back time. He had stayed human. He had stayed with Buffy.

"Well I guess that means that, like with the other Buffy, Dawn was sent to you regardless," Willow pointed out, "Because they've been married for four years and Dawn was only sent to you about three and a half years ago. The change happened before Dawn showed up."

"So for this Buffy the change was sometime between graduation and when Dawn was sent to her," Faith added.

Buffy, still shocked about the whole Angel being human thing, pretty much ignored the others and got back to the topic at hand. "So…in your reality…Angel is human?" Buffy asked.

Buffy2 nodded her head, "That's right. He has been for a little over four years now."

"Well that was a quick engagement," Xander pointed out.

"Well with the baby coming…" Buffy2 started to say but was cut off at the mention of a baby.

"Baby?!" All of the other Buffy's said at the exact same time as everyone's mouths dropped to the floor.

Before Buffy2 had a chance to explain, the others noticed that there was some activity coming from the portal. It was getting louder again and the lights were getting brighter just as it did when the Buffy's came through it.

"Oh great," Spike said sarcastically. "If these are more alternate reality Buffy's there had better be some more that are with me."

Just as when the Buffy's came through the portal four bright lights started getting brighter and then four figures dropped down to the ground from those lights. Everyone shielded their eyes until the light dimmed. When it did they realized that this time the figures weren't women. This time they were men.

"Oh this is just bloody brilliant," Spike said angrily. "Five Buffy's I can handle but five of this ponce," he said as he pointed to Angel, "That's just not right."

"What the hell?" one of the Angel's asked as he looked around at the others.

Buffy3 smiled from her spot on the floor as she recognized the only one without a soul. Then she realized that they were going to do the same thing to him as they did to her so she figured that she should warn him. There was no way she was going to get out of this if he was in the same position she was. "Angelus…run!" Buffy3 yelled.

Angel3 didn't even hesitate. He looked for the nearest exit and took off running.

"Don't let him get away!" Angel yelled to the others.

Unfortunately for Angel3 it was the same situation that happened with Buffy3. It was four Angel's against one.

"Shit," Angel3 said.

"It was a good try baby," Buffy3 yelled to him.

Angel3 turned to her and smiled and then turned back to Angel who was bringing him towards his lover. "Ooo do I get to be tied up too?"

Luckily there had been chains on Buffy3's legs as well so Angel just took those off of her legs and chained Angel3 to the same pipe.

"I knew you'd come find me baby," Buffy3 said as she kissed Angel3 fiercely, devouring his entire mouth.

"That's just gross," Xander pointed out.

Dawn raised her hand slightly with a disgusted expression on her face similar to Xander's. "I second that."

"Buffy!" Angel2 yelled as he ran to the Buffy with the ring on her finger. "I was so worried about you," he added as he pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I'm ok honey," Buffy2 responded with a smile as they broke away from their hug and just held each other in their arms. "How's Connor…is he still with Giles?"

Angel and Angel4 both turned to them at the same time and asked, "Connor?!"

Buffy2 and Angel2 turned back to them and smiled. "Our son," Buffy2 responded.

"Angel?" Buffy1 said to Angel1. Everything going on with the other Buffy and Angel was very interesting and all but she wanted to see if one of these Angel's was the one from her reality.

Angel1 simply smiled slightly and responded, "It's me. It's been a long time," he added awkwardly. Things seemed to be a little uncomfortable between these two.

"It has," Buffy1 responded as the two uneasily stood in front of each other trying to figure out what else to say.

"So I'm going to take a wild guess in assuming that these four Angel's are from the same realities that the four Buffy's came from," Xander pointed out.

"Are you ok?" Angel4 asked Buffy4.

Buffy4 smiled back at him slightly. "I'm fine. I just want to figure this whole thing out."

When Angel3 and Buffy3 finally stopped sucking face and Angel3 started looking around. "Wow…I don't like this world," he said out loud. "They're all…alive. It's just no fun."

"I know," Buffy3 agreed in a disgusted ton, "And you and Spike still have souls. No fun at all."

"What's that supposed to mean pet?" Spike asked with a confused look on his face.

Angel3 rolled his eyes, he was extremely annoyed. Buffy3 rolled her eyes along with him. "We might as well just play along baby…the sooner we figure this whole thing out…the sooner we can get back to our world and finish off what we started."

The others looked at the two vampires awaiting an answer. Angel3 sighed and began to explain. "You had a soul in our world captain peroxide…but we fixed that little problem after turning the others."

"The others?" Buffy asked.

Angel3 began to laugh. "Are we really going to have to tell this whole boring story?"

"You know I really wish someone would," Gunn responded. "This is just getting kind of freaky."

Angel3 and Buffy3 looked at each other and smiled. It was as if they were having a mental conversation with each other. Finally Angel3 turned to the rest of the group. "Alright kiddies…you want the story…we'll tell you the story."

To Be Continued…


	5. Vampire World

**Chapter 4 – Vampire World**

Disclaimer: Some dialog is taken directly from _Angel The Series_. This dialog is from the Season 4 episode, "Release," and does not belong to me, nor was it written by me.

The Buffies, the Angels and the rest of the gang gathered around Buffy3 and Angel3 in anticipation. Tensions were high as everyone tried to figure out just what it was that these two vampires from a different reality were talking about. The four human Buffies crossed their arms in annoyance almost at the exact same time as they awaited the coming story.

Finally, after a dramatic pause for affect, Angel3 began. "Well I guess it all started when my crack team decided to take out my soul in hopes of saving us from a big beastie. As they should have expected…it all went down hill from there."

"I remember that," Fred interrupted. "This all happened in this world too. You got loose, killed the beast and then Faith stopped you…"

"Then I came in and put your soul back," Willow finished Fred's sentence.

"That's exactly how it happened in our world too," Angel4 confirmed.

"I never lost my soul again after…well after what happened with Buffy," Angel1 explained.

"Same here," Angel2 agreed.

Angel3 and Buffy3 looked at each other and nearly burst out laughing. "Well thank god that didn't happen in our world," Buffy3 said with a smile.

Buffy rolled her eyes in irritation. "What _did_ happen then?" she demanded.

Again, Angel3 paused before answering the question. Angelus was always known for being a bit of a drama king. He formed his thoughts and figured out where the change occurred that made his world so different from theirs.

Then, finally, he spoke, "Faith," he started as he smirked in the direction of a very curious looking dark haired slayer, "Faith didn't stop me."

XXXXXX

_Faith and Angelus had been fighting for quite a while. It seemed that Angelus was gaining the upper hand._

"_Come on, Faith. You're not even trying," Angelus said after he threw the slayer off of an overhang._

"_So that's why you really came back huh? Not enough to punish yourself in prison. Is that it? Still lookin for someone to help beat the bad outta yah?" Angelus tormented as he repeatedly sent blows to Faith's face._

"_You know what the funny part is darling? I could beat you to death and it wouldn't even make a difference. Nothing will ever change who you are," he added as he kicked her in the face while she was down. "You're a murder," he sent another hard blow to her face, "an animal," and another, "and you enjoy it," and another, "just like me!" he ended his advances with a smile._

_Angelus had had the upper hand for most of the fight but after that last statement Faith knocked him on his back with a sweep to his legs and began punching his face repeatedly as she began to take back the fight._

"_No!" she yelled with enthusiasm. She sent one last powerful punch to his jaw. "You're wrong. I'm different now. I'm not like you," the slayer defended as she watched Angelus slowly begin to slip into unconsciousness._

_Then to Faith's surprise Angelus swept her legs out from underneath her with his own, grabbed her by her coat and brought her neck close to his face._

"_You will be," he whispered into her ear as his face changed and he sunk his teeth into her jugular._

_XXXXXX_

_Several hours had passed and Angelus was beginning to get bored. At first he feared that he may have drained the slayer too much. Slayer's blood could be very intoxicating and not taking all of it proved to be more difficult then he had expected. He had taken the right amount though, he was nearly sure of it._

_The waiting was the hardest part. A million thoughts were going through his mind. He couldn't remember the last time a slayer had been turned. It was extremely rare of course but there had been a few occurrences. A slayer becoming a vampire wasn't too much different from a human becoming a vampire…or at least as far as Angelus knew it wasn't._

_Slayers are imbued with the strength to fight but they are only the slightest bit more powerful then vampires. He wondered if that meant she would be slightly more powerful then every other vampire or if it meant that she would become less powerful as a vampire._

_He couldn't wait to find out._

_Luckily for him, he didn't have to wait much longer. Only a few more minutes had gone by when he began to hear the girl stirring. A bright, conniving smile appeared on his face as he rushed to help her to her feet._

"_How do you feel?" he asked curiously._

_As Faith rose to her feet her face changed almost immediately and she responded with a deep, husky voice, "Hungry."_

_Angelus smiled brightly at his new creation. "I thought you might be," the soulless vampire said as he stood up and vanished behind a wall briefly. He returned only moments later with a young brown haired boy whose hands were tied behind his back and had a handkerchief covering his mouth._

_The boy looked up at Angelus with pleading eyes as tears ran down his face. He tried to speak, to beg, but it was no use. Angelus shoved the boy in Faith's direction. She caught him before he could fall, looked at him hungrily, and then looked up at her sire._

_Angelus simply smiled at the girl and instructed, "You know what to do."_

_Faith smiled, showing her intense fangs, and nodded. She looked over the helpless boy once more and then tilted his head so that his pulsing neck was fully exposed. She slowly took in the scent of her pray and then sunk her teeth deep into his jugular almost as if she'd done this a hundred times before. She was a natural._

_The boy tried to scream but it was muffled by his restraints. Faith sucked the boy dry and took pleasure in every last drop of his innocent blood. When she was sure that she had gotten it all she finally released the limp body and simply allowed it to fall hard to the ground._

_Angelus watched the entire ordeal intently making sure he didn't miss a thing. It was as if he was watching one of those exciting action movies that you can't take your eyes off of._

_When she was finished he watched his childe stand there still in vampire face with blood running down her chin from the corners of her mouth. He slowly walked to the girl as she managed to figure out how to change her face back into looking like a human. When he reached her, he looked her over and she did the same to him. Then, with an animistic look in his eyes, he grabbed the back of her head with his left hand and crushed her mouth to his, making sure to lick up every drop of blood still left on her face in the process._

XXXXXX

"Now hold on just a second here," Faith interrupted the story. "There's no way that happened. Yeah, Angelus bit me but I had that drug stuff injected in me to make him pass out."

Angel3 smiled mischievously. "Well then I guess the Faith in my world just wasn't as bright as you are sweet heart…because the only thing I felt when I sunk my teeth into her neck…was satisfaction."

Angel, who was standing right next to Angel3 at the time, sent a backhanded fist to the soulless vampire with enough force to make him spit out a little blood. "Why don't you just get on with the story," Angel suggested.

Angel3 let out a hardy laugh as he spit again. "You got it chief. Should I pick up right where I left off?" he asked erotically as he looked Faith up and down seductively.

Robin looked at Angel3, then at Faith and then back at Angel3. "Why don't you skip the intimate details and cut to the chase," he said as he put his arm around Faith protectively.

"Good point," Buffy3 said slightly irritated at where this story was headed.

"Alright, alright," Angel3 said as he put his hands in the air defensively, "I'll just leave the rest of that chapter of the story up to your imaginations."

He then looked to the ceiling as if he were deep in thought. "Now where should I go from here…ah yes…good old Faith and Wes had been gone quite a long time. The rest of the gang at Angel Inc. were starting to get a little worried…"

XXXXXX

"_Something's wrong," Fred said as she passed the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel. "They shouldn't be taking this long."_

"_Relax, I'm sure everything's fine. Wes and Faith can take care of themselves," Gunn tried to reassure her even though he was even a little unsure about that statement himself._

"_Against Angelus?" Fred questioned, "I'm not so sure. I think we should go look for them."_

_Gunn sighed and glanced at his watch. He didn't want to be pessimistic or anything but it had been nearly six hours since Faith and Wesley left. Even if they hadn't found Angelus at the warehouse that demon was staying at, they should have at least called to check in._

"_It is getting kind of late," Gunn agreed. Then he glanced out the window as the first signs of day light began to appear. "Or I guess I should say early."_

_Now Fred was beginning to panic even more. "We should go look for them. They could be hurt. Something is definitely wrong."_

_Gunn took in a deep breath as he walked towards Fred and put his hands on her shoulders to try and help her calm down. He smiled slightly, "Alright," he said softly, "We'll go look for them. It'll be day light soon so at least we'll have that upper hand on Angelus. Go upstairs and tell Cordy and Connor what's going on. I'm gonna set up some tranc guns and load up on the good stuff just in case."_

_Fred nodded her head and walked away to do as she was told._

_XXXXXX_

_The sun was now up when Gunn and Fred approached the warehouse. Even so, they approached with caution. In the back of their minds they mostly expected that he wouldn't even be there, but Angelus was known for surprising people with the unexpected._

"_Watch your back Fred. If Angelus is here…he'll most likely be ready for us," Gunn warned._

_Fred nodded her head to show she understood. Then she gulped hard as she gripped her tranquilizer gun tighter. She couldn't believe she was keeping it together at all. The things she had learned about Angelus were enough to make her hair stand on end as it was, and that little visit he had paid her the night before really didn't help matters._

_The two friends looked around for a few short minutes but it didn't take them long to find what they were looking for. Buried in the shadows was a familiar, very badly beaten, English watcher._

"_Oh my god," Fred exclaimed with worry. She was the first to see him. The two ran to their friend's aid._

"_Wesley, are you alright?" Fred asked with deep concern in her voice._

_Wesley was sitting in a small wooden chair with his hands bound behind his back. He looked as if he was barely conscious. His face was beaten to a bloody pulp and he had obviously been tortured for hours. "I…" Wesley tried to speak but he couldn't seem to get the words out._

_Gunn quickly fumbled with the ropes to untie him. "We have to get him out of here, fast! Angelus could be back any second," Gunn instructed._

"_Wesley…where's Faith?" Fred asked him as she tried to keep a calm ton._

_Wesley was nearly in tears. "I…I failed her," he responded with defeat._

"_What are you talking about, Wes? Where is she?" Gunn asked anxiously._

_Wesley finally began to compose himself as Gunn tried to help him up from the chair. "She's dead," he answered. Both Gunn and Fred's mouths nearly dropped to the floor. "Angelus…he…he turned her. She's dead."_

"_Oh my god," Fred said as she put her hands to her mouth in shock._

_Gunn was just as shocked at the news, but he knew that they couldn't stay and mess around. They had to get Wesley out of there. "We need to get out of here…now! Wes, can you walk?"_

"_Leaving already?" a female's voice asked from the shadows. "We're just gettin started baby."_

"_I promise we'll be just as hospitable with the two of you as we were with good old Wes," a male's voice added from the opposite direction._

_Fred and Gunn looked at each other with worry. Fred pointed her gun in the direction of the female voice and Gunn pointed his in the direction of the male's._

"_If you're so hospitable…maybe you should come out and introduce yourselves," Gunn said as he frantically tried to seek out his target. They both knew who the voices belonged to, now it was just a matter of waiting for them to show themselves._

"_Good idea," Angelus said with a smile as he jumped to the ground directly behind Gunn. Angelus was able to get the hit he needed to knock the boy out before Gunn even got a chance to turn around._

_Fred immediately turned towards Gunn and just as she was about to fire her weapon, someone knocked the tranquilizer gun from her hands, and then punched her across the jaw putting her in the same position as Gunn._

"_You really shouldn't play with dangerous toys like that," Wesley said as he stood over Fred's motionless body with a bright smile on his vampiric face, "Someone could get hurt."_

XXXXXX

"You turned Wesley too," Buffy1 said as she shook her head in disappointment.

Angel3 just smiled at her with a proud look on his face at how smart he had been. "He just took a little longer to wake up then little Ms. Faith. So he got stuck being the bait," he added as he sent a conniving glance in Wesley's direction.

"Did you turn us too?" Gunn asked. "I mean…the other me and the other Fred? Did you make them vampires too?"

Angel3 opened his mouth to answer but before he could get the words out the portal began to crackle once again. The light became brighter and four more figures began to appear.


	6. Bloody Hell

**Chapter 5 – Bloody Hell**

"You have got to be kidding me," Dawn said as she waited for the blinding light to disappear so that they could see who the new four figures were. They didn't have to wait long.

The light cleared pretty quickly and everyone braced themselves, on the lookout for anyone else that may have been from Buffy3 and Angel3's world.

"Oh great…perfect," Angel said sarcastically as he finally got a good look at the four figures standing confused before them.

The four figures were all Spikes. Every one of them looked around with extreme confusion. "Where the bloody hell am I?" one of the Spikes asked.

"It's a long story mate," the original Spike responded with a sigh.

Buffy4 looked at all of them very closely and then a giant smile appeared on her face. She rushed to one of the Spikes and enveloped him in a tight hug.

"Spike, I'm so glad you're here," she said softly with a smile appearing on her face that she was unable to hold back.

Spike4 smiled back at her as their hug broke so they could look at each other. The blonde vampire brought his hands to his slayer's face and pulled her in for a gentle hello kiss.

"Well I haven't the slightest clue were here is, but if you're here then I'm glad I'm here too," Spike4 said with a smile. "You had me worried pet. When I saw you get pulled through that portal I didn't know what to think."

"So you know him then?" Xander asked Buffy4 as if he didn't already know the answer. "He's the Spike from your reality?"

Buffy4 nodded her head with slight excitement. "I'm positive."

"Well then it might be a good idea for the rest of you to point out your Spikes so we can figure out which one belongs to vamp world," Gunn suggested while the remaining Spikes were still looking around dazed and confused.

"The Spike from our world has a soul," Angel2 explained.

"This is very odd, and I'm extremely bloody confused, but I think I'm the guy you're looking for," Spike2 responded. "With the soul having and all."

"He's the one," Buffy2 confirmed with surety in her voice.

"Well you see now," Spike started proudly, "This isn't the only universe where I've got a soul. Guess it was meant to be."

"I've got a soul also, mates," Spike4 said as he raised his hand slightly.

The original Spike's smile brightened even wider at this statement.

"Well I've got a chip," Spike1 offered defensively. "No soul, but I don't kill humans anymore. My lady wouldn't quite like that," he added with a small smile.

"Bloody wankers," the final Spike responded with a disappointed shake of his head. "I guess I'm the only one proud to say that I've got no soul and no bloody chip in my head, although I did have both at one point in my unlife."

"Spike you idiot," Angel3 snapped. "Why didn't you try and run. You saw Buffy and I chained up, and now you're going to be in the same boat…moron."

"Yes," Spike3 responded, "I did see the two of you chained up over there, but what was I supposed to do with a bunch of bloody slayers around and these other soled yous and soled mes? I wouldn't stand a chance captain forehead."

Angel3's temper began to rise. He turned to Buffy3. "We really should have just staked him instead of removing his damn soul."

"Oh piss off," Spike3 retorted.

"Both of you just shut up," the original Buffy yelled in annoyance.

Angel1 and Angel4 took hold of each of Spike3's arms to contain him while Buffy1 stood at the ready if they needed backup.

Buffy slowly walked to Angel and whispered to him softly. "This is getting out of hand. We don't even have anymore restraints for Spike and if alternate us' keep coming out of that portal there's not even going to be enough room for us all in this warehouse."

Angel nodded his head. "We need to get everyone back to Wolfram & Hart. We have several holding cells and plenty of research material so we can figure out what's up with this portal and what we need to do about it."

"Agreed," Buffy responded. She then glanced quickly around the warehouse at the seemingly massive amounts of people crowded there. Then she turned back to Angel. "How are we going to get everyone out of here?"

Angel thought for a moment, and then looked over to Fred. "Fred, call the offices, get us some vans. We're taking everyone back to Wolfram & Hart where we can lock them up and figure this thing out," he instructed, shrugging his head towards Buffy3, Angel3 and Spike3 when referring to, 'them.'

Fred nodded her head as she took out her cell phone and dialed the number.

"I think that's a rather good idea," Wesley agreed. "Getting away from this portal may be exactly the right thing to do."

Angel and Buffy looked at him and waited for him to explain further.

"There's no way to be sure right now but I have a hunch that the reason alternate reality Buffies, Angels and Spikes are appearing from that portal may very well be because the three of you have been in this area the longest. You were all the first to arrive to check out the portal and it's entirely likely that your presence is what's pulling these people to us."

Fred nodded her head in agreement as she put the person she was talking to on hold for a moment. "Of course. This makes perfect sense. And if that's true, that also means that if we all continue to stay here we're most likely all going to be faced with our alternate selves in a matter of hours, or possibly less."

"Precisely," Wesley confirmed with a small smile.

"Well I vote we get the heck outta here then," Faith joined in. "Looking back on how I used to be as a person…I really don't think I wanna meet myself as a vampire."

"We can't just leave the portal unguarded though," Gunn insisted. "What if it's too late and the other us' come out anyway and we're not here to greet them. That could create some big problems."

"He's right," Angel4 agreed. "We shouldn't leave it unguarded. It's not safe."

Angel nodded his head in concurrence. He turned to Fred and luckily she was still on the phone. "Fred, tell them to also get a few teams out here to guard the place."

Fred nodded her head and continued her phone conversation adding what Angel had told her.

"Goody, guess we're goin on a road trip," Angel3 said slyly.

"Oh and Fred," Angel got her attention once again, "Tell them to bring tranquilizers. I don't want to take any risks with these three."

Buffy3 frowned and sent Angel3 a pouty face. "This world's no fun."

XXXXXX

When Angel's people arrived he instructed them to guard every entrance to the warehouse and to not go inside. He told the teams that if they heard anything out of the ordinary they were to call him immediately and not let anything in or out of the warehouse. When the objectives were clear Angel had Buffy3, Angel3 and Spike3 knocked out with tranquilizer guns and everyone proceeded back to Wolfram & Hart.

When everyone arrived back at the law firm the three dangerous vampires were immediately locked up in separate cells next to one another. Luckily the tranquilizers were still in effect.

Wesley and Fred immediately went to work on researching the portal, trying to figure out what they should do with it, and how they could send the alternate Buffies, Angels and Spikes back to their realities. Dawn, and even Xander and Andrew, had offered to help but Wesley and Fred assured them that they had it under control.

Gunn and Lorne both had some work they needed to get done, and frankly they were all too eager to do it. Like pretty much everyone involved they were a little creeped out about the whole situation.

Buffy also wanted Andrew elsewhere. The whole ride back consisted of nothing but annoying questions that no one could answer. Luckily, Robin offered to take him out. They decided that they would go somewhere and order some food to bring back for everyone.

Everyone else managed to cram into Angel's office. Luckily he had a fairly large office so everyone was fairly comfortably fit in. Angel, of course, sat at his desk with Buffy leaning against the wall right next to him. Dawn also stood next to her sister. Faith and Xander stood against the wall a few feet away on the other side of Angel's desk. Angel4 also stood a few feet away from Faith.

There was a couch at the far end of the office where Willow, Kennedy, Angel2 and Buffy2 all managed to fit. Angel2 had his arm protectively around Buffy2 as she laid her head on his chest. Kennedy and Willow were also snuggled up as close together as they could be, hand in hand.

Angel1 sat on the floor, leaning against the wall with Buffy1 sitting next to him. Buffy4 and Spike4 were also sitting on the floor against the wall but Buffy4 was sat in-between Spike4's legs. His arms were wrapped around her and even though they were sitting on the floor they both looked perfectly content.

Finally, the three remaining Spikes, Spike1, Spike2 and the original Spike, stood a few feet away from each other against the wall near the door. Even though they were all without a doubt Spike there were still subtle differences between them.

Spike1 was easy to spot because he was the only one of the four in the room that didn't have a soul and it showed in the way he dressed and the way he carried himself.

Spike2 was easy to pick out as well because he had slightly different hair from the others. Rather then having his hair slicked back and short he wore his slightly longer and let it curl out a little like it had when the original Spike had first gotten his soul back and become slightly insane.

Even Spike4 was easily distinguished from the others and it wasn't just because he was the one with Buffy. Spike4, along with Buffy4 and Angel4, had very dirty and tattered looking cloths. They all looked like they had been through hell. They're faces were hardened and the entire time since they'd come through the portal it was as if the three of them were all on high alert.

After everyone got as comfortable and as settled as they could, they got down to business.

"Alright," Angel began, "Wesley said that it might help things along if we find out exactly where things changed to make our lives different in your realities. He also said that figuring out more about the differences between all of our worlds could turn out to be of some help."

"Well I guess we already figured out where the change happened in vamp world," Faith offered. "I guess I never took the Orpheus when I fought Angelus. That must have been the change."

Angel nodded his head in agreement. "Right, so at least we know that one. I'm not all that eager to find out more about them just yet anyway."

"I second that," Buffy added.

"Well, we also know what the change was in their world," Dawn pointed out as she shrugged her shoulders towards Buffy1 and Angel1. "Faith never killed anyone."

Faith couldn't help but smile inwardly at the thought. At least in one world she hadn't screwed up. It felt somewhat comforting to know.

"Good point," Willow agreed.

Kennedy started gently stroking the red head's hair. Willow smiled sweetly at her and in response Kennedy pulled her in closer.

Spike1 had been watching all of this very carefully and seemed to be getting a little agitated. Before anyone else could speak he broke from his position against the wall and spoke up first.

"What's all this then?" he asked slightly irritated as he pointed to Willow and Kennedy.

"What do you mean?" Willow asked with confusion.

"You two," Spike1 continued. "What the bloody hell is with all the touchy feely stuff between you two?"

Kennedy sent the vampire an annoyed glare. "She's my girlfriend. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," Spike1 responded. "You're a lesbian in this world?"

Before Willow could answer, Buffy1 also jumped in on the conversation. "You are?" she asked with interest. Then she turned towards the original Buffy. "Well that must have made things a lot easier for you. I wish my Willow was gay."

"Huh?" Willow and Buffy both asked in unison as they looked at each other with confusion and then back at Buffy1 and Spike1.

"Oh," Buffy1 said as she realized what the two friends might be thinking. "No…I didn't mean that the two of you are together in my world. I meant it must have been easier for you with Willow going through the same thing you were going through…yah know…with coming out and all."

"What?!" all three of the other Buffies asked in unison.

"Wait a second," Xander interrupted. "Coming out…as in gay coming out?"

"You're gay?" Buffy2 asked with shock.

Buffy1 looked around suddenly feeling a little self-conscious as everyone continued to stare at her. "Ok then," she said nervously, "Guess I'm the only one of us who is then."

Faith couldn't help the smirk that appeared on her face. She glanced over at the original Buffy and said, "Dang B. You're like the last person on earth I'd ever expect to swing that way."

Before Buffy could defend herself, Buffy1 spoke up again. "And you're the last person I'd expect to be surprised about that," she said to Faith with a slight scoff.

The dark slayer looked slightly confused at first but then realized that the remark was most likely implying that she was also gay. She quickly raised her hands in defense.

"Hey tootsie roll I'm as straight as it gets," Faith responded defensively.

Buffy1 shook her head slightly with a sly smile. "Not in my world you're not."

Faith and Buffy quickly looked over at each other as they both realized what Buffy1 might be implying. Then an uncomfortable tension immediately started to build between them.

"Wait just a second here," Xander spoke up again in regards to Buffy1. "Are you saying that in your world, not only are you gay, but you're gay with Faith?"

Buffy1 rolled her eyes at Xander's way of putting what he was trying to ask. "If your asking me if Faith is my girlfriend in my world then the answer is no," she responded in a bitter ton.

All three of the other Buffies and Faith all seemed to exhale with relief at the exact same time.

"At least…not anymore," Buffy1 added with a little more bitterness, but also a hint of sadness that went undetected by most, just when the other Buffies and Faith thought they were off the hook.

"You've gotta be kidding, right?" Buffy2 asked with disbelief. Of all of the Buffies and pretty much everyone else in the room she seemed the most shocked, which was a pretty big deal considering that everyone else in the room was also extremely stunned.

"Of all people? After everything she's done?" Buffy2 continued.

"You've gotta remember though luv, she didn't do any of that stuff in our world," Spike1 reminded everyone. Then he changed his attentions once again to Willow and Kennedy. "Now can we get back to the fact that my girlfriend has a girlfriend in this world?"

"What?!" Willow, Kennedy and a few others said at the same time.

Xander shook his head back and forth intensely. "No…no there is no way that Willow would ever date _you_," he insisted with a not so nice emphasis on the word 'you.'

Angel2 nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, Willow is gay in our world too…and even if she wasn't she wouldn't give you the time of day."

"She's with Kennedy in our world too," Buffy4 added.

"Well then my Red must be entirely different from all of yours, mates, because there is no way that she's into woman, and she did give me the time of day," Spike1 challenged. "We've been together for about three and a half years now. On and off a few times that is."

All of the others, aside from Buffy1 and Angel1 who had already known all of this, being part of the same world, were completely baffled. In one world Buffy was gay and had dated Faith, and Spike was with Willow. In another, Angel was human, married to Buffy and they had a son. In the third they were all vampires and in the last it looked as if showers and laundry machines didn't exist.

The last reality was the one that they all knew the least about but they were all quickly learning that all of their worlds were completely different. Some of the differences were good, some were bad, and some simply kept them all wondering how and why.

There was a lot that these people didn't know about each other, but curiosity was causing them all to want to know more and more.


	7. The Last Four

**Chapter 6 – The Last Four**

The room was completely silent, but that didn't last long. Just as Xander opened his mouth, about to ask another question, Angel's office phone began to ring.

All eyes turned to the original Angel as they waited for him to answer.

"This is Angel," the souled vampire said as he picked up the office phone.

"Mr. Angel," the voice on the other line began, "We have a situation at the warehouse, sir."

Angel's expression became that of seriousness and worry as he asked the next question. "What is it?"

"You instructed us to report anything out of the ordinary, sir," the voice continued. "We've reported sight of an extremely bright light coming from within the building. Would you like us to go inside to investigate, sir?"

"No!" Angel responded sternly.

He knew that this most likely meant that more people from the alternate realities had come through the portal. They were still unsure if what was causing it had been the presence of the original Angel, Buffy and Spike so they did not want any other people entering the building until they were sure.

"I'm coming there now," Angel instructed to the voice on the other line. "No one goes inside the warehouse and no one comes out. You just stay there and guard the place until I get there. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," the man responded obediently just before Angel hung up the phone.

Everyone in the room sent Angel a disbelieving glance. "More?" Willow asked with annoyance and exasperation.

"Looks that way," Angel responded as he stood from his desk and went for his coat.

"I'm going with you," Buffy announced. She stood up straight and began to fallow Angel to the door.

Spike looked frantically back and fourth between the two with annoyance. "Now hold up a minute," he protested. "The two of you shouldn't go alone. Whoever these other ones are one of them is probably going to be a vampire. You might need backup."

"Well it shouldn't be anyone that's not Buffy, Angel or Spike that gives you that backup," Willow suggested.

Angel1 nodded his head in agreement. "She's right. If Wesley's theory is true then the presence of anyone else might just cause their alternate realities to come through as well."

"Yeah, but we've already all been in the warehouse," Dawn reminded. "Isn't the damage already done?"

"It might not be," Buffy4 offered. "You never know, it could be the collective time spent in the presence of the portal that causes it to select who goes through."

"And how do we know that you guys going back in there isn't going to cause even more alternate yous to come through?" Faith asked intuitively.

"We don't," Buffy agreed, "But that's a risk we're just going to have to take."

Angel nodded his head slightly in agreement. "She's right. We'll get in there quick, figure out who came through and then get them out as quick as we can."

Spike took a few steps forward before Buffy and Angel could leave the room. "I'm coming with you," he insisted, leaving no room for argument.

"So am I," Angel4 added as he stepped up as well. "You're going to need backup."

Buffy and Angel exchanged glances and ultimately came to the collective conclusion that they didn't have time to argue with them.

"Fine," Buffy responded with defeat.

"Willow, I need you to go find Wesley and the others and inform them on what's going on," Angel instructed. "I'll call as soon as I know more."

The redhead nodded her head in understanding. "No problem."

Then Angel turned his attentions to Faith. "Faith, keep an eye on things while I'm gone."

Faith nodded her head as well. "You got it boss," she responded in understanding.

Angel nodded his head back and continued to head for the door with Buffy, Spike and Angel4 fallowing closely behind him.

XXXXXX

It didn't take long for the group of four to reach the warehouse. As soon as they arrived they were greeted by several armed personnel of Wolfram and Hart's defense. They briefed Angel once again on the situation and informed him that since he was contacted on the phone there had been sounds of a possible confrontation within the building.

All four individuals, looking worried at this point, responded to this by quickly rushing to the warehouse doors and hastily running inside.

When they reached the inside they began to slow their advances so that they would be more alert to their surroundings. It was already going to be a surprise as to whom the alternate reality people would be, but they wanted that to be the only surprise. All though they didn't know who these people would be, they had an idea that it would probably be one of the eleven who had joined them in the warehouse after the arrival of the Buffies.

As the three vampires and the slayer slowly and cautiously walked through the building towards the opening of the portal, they were surprised to hear no sounds. As they got closer they even began to notice that they couldn't even hear the once very noticeable crackling sounds of the portal itself.

In fact, as they finally reached the large open space of the warehouse where they first found the portal, they quickly noticed that it wasn't even there at all. The four searched every inch of the open space above their heads where they stood, but none could spot even a small sign that the portal was ever even there at all.

The first thought running through most of their minds was that maybe the bright light that the men saw was just the portal closing. Maybe this time no one actually came through it.

'But then what were the sounds of a fight that the men heard?' Buffy thought to herself.

This was when she started looking around more closely and finally spotted them. Everyone had been so busy trying to comprehend what had happened to the portal that they hadn't even noticed the four figures in a shadowy corner of the large room.

"Angel," Buffy said softly to get his, and the other's, attentions.

At the sound of Buffy's voice the three souled vampires turned to look at her and then looked in the direction that the blonde was looking in.

The four warriors slowly walked towards the four figures to get a better look so that they could make out whom, what seemed to be, the last of the alternate reality people were.

As they got closer the first thing they realized was that the figures were female. They noticed that one was sitting down on the ground with her back to the wall while the other three were standing defensively around her.

One of the four slowly started to walk into the light revealing who she, and the others, where alternate selves of.

The girl smiled slightly, clearly a little relieved to see familiar faces. She looked around at all four of them, her gaze finally resting on Buffy.

"Hey, B."

XXXXXX

All eyes were planted firmly on the former watcher when he walked back into Angel's office after being called out to take a phone call.

"Was it Angel?" Buffy4 asked him curiously.

"It was," Wesley responded.

Dawn rolled her eyes in annoyance as she waited for Wesley to continue. "Well?"

For a moment Wesley couldn't help but smile inwardly at how much Dawn had grown to be so similar to her older sister. Rather then think on that fact any longer he decided that he had better inform everyone about his conversation with Angel before he got his head bitten off.

"It turns out that we do have four more alternate reality persons on our hands," the British man began to explain. "The good news, however, is that the portal appears to have closed. They're not exactly sure how or why but the new comers informed them that it closed almost immediately after they had been forced through. Hopefully this will mean that these resent arrivals will be our last visitors from these alternate realities."

"What?" Buffy2 asked with extreme worry. "That can't be. If the portal is closed then how are we going to get back to our worlds? How are we going to get back to our son?"

Wesley looked back at the married couple with defeat. "I'm afraid I'm not sure at the moment. But I assure you, we're doing everything in our power to figure out why you all are here and how we can get you back to your worlds. I have everyone in Wolfram and Hart working on it."

"You haven't found anything at all yet?" Angel2 asked hopefully as he held a very distraught Buffy2 tightly in his arms.

Fred's face fell as she decided to help Wesley out a little. "I'm sorry. We've been searching everything having to do with alternate realities, alternate selves, portals, anything and everything we can think of. But so far…we haven't had much luck."

"So…what do we do now?" Buffy1 asked.

"Well, as Fred said, we haven't really had _much_ luck," Wesley began to answer. "We have, however, found some references relating to alternate worlds and alternate selves. It has been documented on past occurrences that knowledge of these alternate realities can help to uncover the meaning as to why the alternate selves are there."

"The fact that the portal is now closed suggests that either someone unknown to us has closed it, or that these four people's alternate selves were sent into our world for a specific reason," Fred continued to explain.

"What that reason is, we're unsure of," Wesley added. "But, by learning more about these alternate worlds it should, in theory, spark the 'why' right into our brains."

Spike4 shrugged his shoulders in slight understanding. "Makes sense I supposed."

Willow nodded with a smile as what Wesley and Fred were explaining began to click perfectly in her mind. "Of course, it makes perfect sense. So we need to talk to them and find out more about what things are like in their worlds. Then, hopefully, something should trigger an answer."

"Precisely," Wesley confirmed with a smile.

Fred smiled as well and then turned back to Wesley. "We should get back to the research though, incase our theory is completely wrong."

"Right," the former watcher agreed. "Angel and the others should be along shortly and we'll be sure to keep you all informed on any progress we come across."

Wesley and Fred then turned towards the door and began to walk out, but before they got fully out of the room they were stopped by Faith's voice.

"Hold up there Wes," the husky voiced slayer spoke up. "You never said who the four newbies are."

The others all looked on at Wesley awaiting an answer as if they had all forgotten all about the four new comers.

"Oh yes, very sorry," Wesley apologized for forgetting. "From what I understand…their you, Faith."

A look of disappointment and slight worry appeared on the dark slayer's face. She shook the emotions quickly away though as she nodded her head somewhat at Wesley. "I was afraid you were gonna say that."

XXXXXX

It was only about ten minutes after Wesley and Fred had left Angel's office that Angel, Buffy, Spike, Angel4 and three incredible likenesses of Faith walked through the doors.

Wesley and Fred were still doing research, Gunn and Lorne having also joined them, but Robin and Andrew had recently gotten back with Chinese food, pizza and several thermoses of blood. Everyone had started eating already knowing that Buffy, Angel and the others would be back soon.

As the three Faiths walked into the office they immediately began looking around the room for the people that were from their worlds. They had all been extremely confused when they first came through the portal. Some were less confused then others though.

Faith3 had been with Spike3 when he'd gone through the portal so when she came through she had a pretty good idea that the same thing had happened to her that had originally happened to him.

A similar situation had occurred with Faith4. She had been with all three of the people of her world that had come through the portal. She had watched each one get taken at a separate time and had been working with the Willow, Giles, Xander, Dawn, Kennedy, Fred and Wesley of her world on trying to figure out where they'd gone and how to get them back. They didn't have much time to figure anything out though because before long, Faith herself was also taken.

Faith1 hadn't been around the others when they were taken but she was quickly informed as soon as Buffy1 had gone missing. The Xander, Anya, Willow and Spike of their world had been with her patrolling when she was taken. Then Spike1 was taken shortly after. The dark haired slayer had been on her bike rushing to Buffy1's house when the portal appeared in front of her and she was sucked through.

On the other hand, Faith2 had no idea what had happened to her. She hadn't been in contact with Buffy2 or Angel2 in quite a long time and Spike2's crew hadn't even thought to have called her after he was taken. She was, understandably, the most confused when arriving in the warehouse with the other Faiths.

Even though some of them had a hunch as to how they got to the warehouse they still had no idea where they were, why they were there, or why there were three other girls that looked almost exactly like them who looked equally confused.

They had initially tried to stay calm and talk to each other to try and figure out what had happened, but as soon as Faith3 realized that the other Faiths weren't vampires like herself she realized that she should probably get out of there. The other Faiths sensed something different about her and quickly came to the conclusion that they shouldn't let her leave.

At first Faith2 and Faith4 thought that maybe she was evil like they had been for a brief period of their lives. But, whatever it was about her, they all didn't want to be the ones responsible for unleashing her into the general public.

When they attempted to stop her she quickly revealed exactly what it was that was different about her. She vamped out and tried to fight them off. Unfortunately for her, three slayers against one vampire proved to be an easy match. The three human Faiths pretty much kicked Faith3's ass and backed her into a corner as they stood guard.

It wasn't long after that when they were found by Buffy, Angel, Spike and Angel4.

The four warriors explained to the Faiths everything that they currently knew. They informed them that their reality's Buffies, Angels and Spikes were safely back at Wolfram & Hart and that their people were doing everything they could to try and figure out what was going on.

Angel4 had immediately recognized the Faith from his world. Faith4 seemed to recognize him as well which seemed to make her feel slightly more clam.

Faith3 was naturally extremely frustrated at being held captive and gaining the knowledge that aside from the three vampires from her world everyone else was human or ensouled. Luckily for the others, Angel had brought a tranquilizer gun along with him in anticipation of finding someone from the vampire world. The vampire Faith was quickly knocked out before they even left the building.

As soon as they had found the alternate Faiths, Buffy found herself becoming immediately uncomfortable. She picked out Faith1 almost immediately as she was the only one giving the blonde slayer that look that people have when they're put in a room with their ex. That, and Faith1, upon realizing that the original Buffy wasn't her Buffy, had immediately asked if her Buffy was alright.

As everyone walked into the room, Faith1 was now looking extremely nervous about the fact that she was about to come face to face with her ex.

Faith2 was the first to enter the office behind Buffy, Angel and Spike. She found it fairly easy to spot the people from her world. Buffy2 and Angel2 were parents and she was assuming that they were the only ones. Buffy's ratty hair and stained clothing, and Angel's human attire that actually consisted of something other then black cloths and a leather duster easily gave them away.

She had also become fairly good friends with Spike2 over the years so she found it easy to pick him out of the crowd as well.

As she approached the group of three she found herself oddly nervous. She hadn't seen Buffy2 and Angel2 in quite some time. She still spoke to Angel2 on the phone occasionally, but she had this sinking feeling that Buffy2 still wasn't over what she had done to her so many years ago.

"Faith," Spike2 greeted her first. "Are you alright?"

Faith2 shrugged her shoulders in response. "Five by five," she answered. "Just…slightly confused."

"Welcome to the club," Angel2 said with a friendly smile that took off some of the tension on the dark slayers shoulders.

Angel4 and Faith4 had fallowed behind Faith2. They spotted Buffy4 and Spike4 in a corner of the office and walked over to them with small smiles on their faces.

Aside from the evil vampire crew, these four were the only ones that had all been together in their reality.

The four of them exchanged silent glances, all seeming to be relieved that they weren't alone but at the same time worried for those they had left behind.

"Welcome to the world of weird," Buffy4 broke the silence with a small smile.

Faith4 smiled back at her and nodded her head slightly. "Yeah, thanks," she responded sarcastically.

Faith1 was the last to walk into Angel's office. She took a deep breath to prepare herself before entering. As soon as she walked in she began to survey the room for the Buffy from her world. After being with the blonde for so long she knew that she would recognize her right away.

Sure enough, as soon as the dark haired slayer spotted Buffy1 she knew it was her Buffy.

She slowly walked up to the blonde slayer who was standing with what seemed to be the Angel and Spike of their world. As she got closer to Buffy1 she tried to analyze the look on her face to try and predict what kind of reaction she was going to get. So far it seemed that she might be in the clear. Buffy1 didn't look upset or annoyed at the site of the brunette.

"Hey, Buffy," the nervous slayer managed to get out when she reached her group. She anxiously placed both hands in her back pockets as she awaited a response.

Buffy1 tried her best not to make any expressions at all. She had really been hoping that the new group wasn't going to be Faiths, but she was glad to see that the brunette was ok.

"Faith," she greeted, not really knowing what else to say.

Faith1 bit her lower lip slightly. At least this was going a little better then she had thought it might go.

"I'm glad you're ok," Faith1 chanced to say. "I was…we were worried," she added, catching herself at the end.

Buffy1 sent the other slayer a slightly confused look.

Faith1 quickly understood the confusion and began to explain. "Xander called me. He told me what happened. I left to go to your house as soon as I hung up with him, but then as I'm on my way I all of the sudden ended up in this warehouse with a bunch of me look-alikes."

The blonde slayer tried her best not to smile at the fact that the other slayer was rushing to her house as soon as she found out that something was wrong with her. That meant that she still cared.

She quickly shoved that smile away though as memories of why they broke up in the first place began to surface. Her face began to harden once again.

"You didn't have to come and…" the blonde began to say before being cut off.

"I know," Faith1 interrupted as she looked to the floor in slight shame. She then looked back up at Buffy1 and sent her a very serious, caring look. "I just wanted to make sure you were ok."

The dark haired slayer really wasn't making it easy for Buffy1 to be upset with her. She too found herself looking down to the floor for a moment. When she looked back up and into Faith1's eyes she simply responded, "Thank you."

A small, hopefully half smile appeared on Faith1's face as she replied, "You're welcome."


	8. Formulating A Plan

Note: Hello all! Soooooo sorry for taking so long to update! I was bombarded with final exams and final papers and all that jazz. Plus I had a slight case of writers block. I had the ideas in my head, but no motivation to write them down for some reason. I hate when that happens. Anyway…school is out for the summer so hopefully I'll have more time to write. Here's the next chapter, I hope you all enjoy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Chapter 7 – Formulating A Plan**

As the three new Faiths got situated with the others from their worlds, the original Buffy, Angel, Spike, Faith and the others of their world began to converse and try to formulate a plan as to what they should do next. All fourteen of them gathered in the largest room of the Wolfram & Hart building, the wide open space of the lobby.

Before deciding to leave the alternate reality people to their reunions, and have a meeting of their own, the gang first wanted to make sure that they knew when the changes in each world had occurred.

They had already figured out that the first alternate reality change was that Faith hadn't killed the deputy mayor back during Buffy's senior year of high school. They also knew that the second world change was that Angel had become human a little over four years ago, and that Faith hadn't taken the Orpheus when facing Angelus in the third world. The only one they didn't know of was the last world, which they knew very little about.

Even though that world was one that they all knew little about, it wasn't hard for them to figure out when the change occurred and what that change was. Buffy, Angel, and Spike had spoken with Angel4 during their little ride to the warehouse. They quickly learned that the change in his reality was that Buffy and the others had failed to destroy The First.

Angel4 explained to them that Willow did perform the spell to make all potential slayers into actual slayers and that it had worked, but they had been overpowered anyway. The turok-hon had been too powerful and there were too many of them.

After a little more discussion they learned that Angel4 had decided not to take the deal with Wolfram & Hart, which meant that he was never given the amulet that Spike was to wear the day of the battle. Without it the gang was unable to finish their assault against The First. The battle had still taken place and Sunnydale was overrun.

He informed them that Buffy and about a dozen of the others were able to escape and retreat to LA for Angel's help, but by then it was too late. The First had taken over and their lives now consisted of simply trying to stay alive.

They arrived at the warehouse before Angel, Buffy and Spike could get anymore information from him, but what they had gotten proved to show exactly what had changed to make the last reality so different. When they got back they had informed the others on what they had learned, and that was when they all decided it would be best if they all got together away from the alternates to decide what they should do next.

"Wesley, Fred, how's the research coming?" Angel asked his friends.

The former watcher and the scientist glanced at each other with disappointed looks, and then turned their attentions back to Angel. "Not good I'm afraid," Fred answered. "The most informative thing that we've found so far suggests that we need to get to know their realities more, and then it should just come to us, like we've already said."

"We've found no other, more immediate, solutions thus far," Wesley added.

"Well that sounds like a good plan," Kennedy responded. "I mean, I don't know about the rest of you but I'm pretty damn anxious to shed some light on some of these situations."

"She has a point," Willow agreed as she smiled at her girlfriend and lightly squeezed her hand.

"Right," Buffy replied, "I think it's safe to say that we all have a lot of questions for these alternate usses, but I think we've also all realized how crazy it gets when all of us are trying to talk at once."

"She's right," Robin agreed. "We have to figure out a way to coordinate this better, possibly by splitting us up into small groups."

Fred shook her head slightly at the idea. "Even small groups might be too much. I think one-on-one's would be our best bet."

"I concur," Wesley nodded.

"Alright," The blonde slayer replied, "We'll set up one-on-ones then."

"We don't have enough people," Willow countered. The other's looked to the red head for an explanation as to what she meant. "Well if you count the four vampires that we currently have on lockdown there are sixteen alternate reality people here."

"Right," the former watcher agreed as he began to understand what Willow was trying to say. "There are only fourteen of us."

Willow nodded her head in agreement and then finished up what the man was getting at. "The eight of us that showed up yesterday, you, Fred, Angel, Spike, Gunn and Lorne."

"We're two short," Dawn stated as she too began to understand along with the others.

"Maybe I could help with that," a male voice from the direction of the elevator interrupted.

Angel, immediately recognizing the voice, shot his head in his direction. "Connor," he stated with surprise. "What are you doing here?"

The teenage boy smiled at his father as he walked in towards the large group of people. "I was just stopping by to say hi and caught a little bit of what you guys were talking about. I'm not exactly sure what 'alternate people' are but I did hear the part about you being two people short for something. Maybe I can help."

As rare as it was to see, the souled vampire smiled slightly at his son's offer to help. Ever since Connor's new family had come to him asking for his help, which ultimately ended in his original memories being restored along with his fake ones still in tacked, the vampire wondered if his son would attempt to live in both worlds.

He had chosen to live in the world that Wolfram & Hart created for him, but that didn't mean that the boy couldn't stop in to see his real father every now and then. As much as Angel wanted to keep his son out of the horrors of the real world, he was extremely happy to see him, and even happier that he was offering to help.

Those who knew Connor all had bright smiles plastered on their faces as well. They knew what it must mean to their boss to see his son once again after all that had happened. Those who didn't know Connor, however, only showed expressions of confusion and wonder.

"Hey squirt," Faith greeted the boy. She recognized his voice the moment Angel had. She was unaware of the full details of what had happened with him the previous year, but she knew enough to know that his presence was welcome and that he had changed a great deal. "Long time no see."

Connor nodded his head towards the dark haired slayer in hello. "Good to see you, Faith." Then he turned his gaze to Willow and smiled at her as well. "Hey, Willow."

The red head smiled at the teen. "Good to see yah, Connor." She had also recognized the boy's voice.

"Wait a second," Xander interrupted the happy reunion with a look of realization. "Connor? As in Angel's son Connor?" he asked as he looked around the room at the others.

"Yup," Gunn answered. "Angel's illegitimate, supernaturally born, memory of us erased and then put back in again, super powered son."

The others tried to fight back their laughter as Angel sent the bald man an annoyed look. Connor simply laughed slightly and waved to Xander and the other's that he didn't know. "That's me."

"Right," Angel said as the realization dawned on him that not everyone in the room had met Connor before. "Connor, you've already met Faith and Willow," he said as he pointed to the girls respectively. "This is Xander, Kennedy, Dawn, Robin, Andrew, and Buffy," he added as he pointed to the remaining six respectively as he said their names.

"It's nice to finally meet you all," the teen greeted with a smile. His eyes then lingered on Buffy as he continued, almost as if what he was about to say was directed souly at her. "I've heard a lot about you all."

As odd, and unhealthy has his and Cordelia's relationship was in the past, they had been extremely good friends. When she first got her memory back after being a higher power she would sit down with Connor and tell him stories of her past. As soon as the teen had heard Buffy's name he recognized her as being the slayer that his father was madly in love with.

He had to admit, his father had good taste. The blonde slayer was beautiful and he could almost feel the love that was still inside both of them, after all the years they'd been apart, just by the way they looked at each other. He would have to remind himself to get more details on what went on there. Cordy wasn't really the best at story time when it came to giving all of the facts.

The blonde slayer wasn't the only one of the people he had just met that caught his eye. He couldn't help but noticed the tall, dark haired girl that looked to be about his age or possibly slightly younger. Dawn, her name was. Being a teen age boy and all, he couldn't help but think about how much he would like to get to know that beautiful girl a little better.

"Likewise," Buffy responded to Connor. She was slightly weirded out by the whole idea of Angel having a son, and it was clearly shown on her face, so as an attempt to change the subject she got right back to business. "So, I guess we're only down by one now."

"Hold on," Angel halted with his hands up. He turned to his son and looked him straight in the eyes as if he was searching for something. "Connor, are you sure you want to help? We don't know how long this will take and it's kind of a complicated situation."

The teen simply shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't mind. "Summer break just started. I've got nothing better to do."

"Are you…" Angel started to ask again before he was cut off.

"I'm sure," Connor cut in. "Just give me a short run through of the situation and I'll figure it out as I go. It sounds pretty interesting, and I wanna help."

Angel smiled slightly and nodded his head in understanding. "Alright," he gave in. Then he turned to the rest of the group. "We've got a fifteenth. Gunn, take him into your office and give him a quick run through?"

"Sure thing, Boss," Gunn responded as he began to walk towards his office. Connor nodded his head to his father and then fallowed behind Gunn.

"Well that will be a big help," Willow said, "But we're still one short."

"Who else could be trusted for something like this?" Fred questioned as she tried to think of another person who could help them out.

"There's not too many trustworthy people in this joint, that's for sure," Spike chimed in.

"He's got a point, cupcake," Lorne agreed.

"I could help, boss!" a perky voice offered from behind a desk in the lobby.

"You're joking right?" Spike responded to the girl.

Angel rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Harmony, no offence, but I don't think this is really something you should be involved in," the vampire replied.

Harmony's face fell in disappointment. "Oh come on boss," she tried to reason. "I've been so good ever since I started working for you. I've worked for you for over seven months and I've had no complaints, and I know almost all of you, and I know the situation and everything."

"As much as I know I'm going to regret saying this later," Willow offered, "She kind of has a point."

The soulless vampire smiled brightly at the witch. "Thank you, Willow." Then, as if an idea struck her, she added, "Oh! I could talk to one of the vampire's. Their all soulless like me. I can get into their heads, understand them and all that stuff."

"I hate to say it, Angel," Wesley began, "But I think she's our best choice."

Once again, Angel rolled his eyes as he knew that the others were right. Everything Harmony had said was true. She was familiar with nearly everyone in the room and being a soulless vampire herself might make the other vampires speak more freely with her.

He sighed briefly and turned his attention back to the hyper vampire. "Alright, Harmony, you can help."

The blonde nearly squealed with excitement. "YAY!" she responded. "Don't worry, boss. I won't let you down."

Buffy rolled her eyes at the annoying voice of the blonde vampire. She wasn't any happier about Harmony helping them out then anyone else was, but she was also aware that the vampire was pretty much their only choice if they wanted to have one-on-ones with all sixteen of the alternates.

"It's settled then," the blonde slayer said with a nod. "Sixteen of us, sixteen of them. We'll all sit down with one of them each and figure out all we can about their realities."

Angel nodded his head in agreement. "Sounds like a plan."

"Now we just need to figure out who's going to take who," Fred pointed out.

"Good point," Wesley agreed. "How should we decide who has a one-on-one with who?" he asked as a general question to everyone.

Robin shrugged his shoulders and responded, "I guess we could all just pick. I'm sure there's a few of us who are more curious about one world then about the others."

"If we're doing it that way then I want the Buffy that's a mom," Dawn offered. "I am dying to figure out what the heck happened there."

Buffy shot her sister an annoyed look, but ultimately decided to let her have that one. As curious as she was about that world, she was equally as curious about what had happened in a certain other reality.

Angel had known which of the sixteen that he wanted his one-on-one with before they had even started talking about it. He couldn't get the thought out of his mind that in a different reality he had stayed human and was now married, and had a child with Buffy. The oracles had told him that if he would have stayed human, Buffy would die, but there she was sitting in his office with the Angel of her reality very much alive.

As much as he didn't want to be one of the first to 'call someone,' he also didn't want to lose the opportunity. "I'll uh…I'll take the human me," Angel offered after Dawn had voiced who she wanted.

Wesley smiled at the souled vampire. "I figured you might."

If Angel were human he would definitely be blushing. As all eyes were on him he desperately hoped that someone else would speak to take the attention off of him. Luckily for him, it wasn't long before his wish was granted.

"I want the Buffy that's with me in her reality," Spike voiced.

"You don't want to have a one-on-one with one of your alternate selves?" Dawn asked with confusion. She had been convinced that all of the four originals would want a one-on-one with their own alternate selves. Angel had already proven that true but now the other souled vampire was contradicting her theory.

"Nah," the bleach blonde vampire responded. "Too creepy if yah ask me. I'd much rather figure out straight from the source why the Buffy of her reality chose me over captain forehead," he added with a smug smile aimed in Angel's direction.

Angel sent the vampire an evil glance, but ultimately decided just to ignore him. Buffy simply rolled her eyes and also decided to ignore the comment. She was too busy trying to decide how she would voice who she wanted to have her one-on-one with without drawing too much attention to why she made that decision.

Clearly jealous about what Spike had just said, Harmony was the next to stake her claim. "I'll take the evil blondie bear," she said with a sensual smile in Spike's direction. "I know just how to get what I need from him," she added in the same implying ton.

Spike raised his eyebrows at the remark and smiled back at her mischievously.

"Well there's a mental image I really could have done without," Faith responded with a disgusted look on her face. Then focusing back on the task at hand she added, "I'll take the none-murderer version of me. I'm kind of curious about what my life would have been like without that whole constant guilt thing hovering over my head."

Although what Faith had said to the others was definitely part of the reason she chose Faith1, she failed to mention how extremely curious she was about how she ended up hooking up with Buffy of all people. That was definitely a piece of information that she hadn't been able to get out of her mind since she first heard it.

Robin nodded his head to Faith as he pulled her closer into his arms. "Right, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm kind of curious about the last world that we all seem to know the least about. I'll take the Faith from that world if that's alright with everyone."

Before anyone else could respond, Gunn and Connor immerged from Gunn's office to rejoin the rest of the group. "Alright, boss, I gave Connor the short version of what's going on and told him a little bit of what we've found out so far about each of the four realities. Did we miss anything?"

"Actually you have," Wesley answered. "Harmony will be our sixteenth person. We are now in the process of deciding who will have their one-on-ones with whom."

"Cool," Gunn responded. "So who's taken so far?"

"Angel will be with the human Angel, and Dawn will be with the Buffy of that world," Wesley began to explain. "Robin will be with the Faith of the last world that we know the least about, and Spike will be with the Buffy of that world. Faith will be with the Faith from the first world in which she had never become evil, and Harmony will be with the Spike from the vampire world. The rest are all still fair game."

"Nice," Gunn replied. "Well I'd kind of like to take one of the vamps. That Angelus is a pretty interesting storyteller and I'd kind of like to hear the rest of what he started. I'll take him if that's cool."

"You sure you can handle him?" Angel asked. "He'll probably be the hardest one to handle of the four. He's tricky and he'll say anything to get under your skin."

"It's cool Angel," Gunn reassured him. "Angelus and I have met before remember? I know his games. I'll be alright."

Angel nodded his head in consent. "Alright then. If you think you can handle him, he's all yours."

"There's still uh…Angels left, right?" Connor asked in an odd ton. He was still trying to process everything that was going on and it was all a little strange.

"Two left," Fred answered. "There's the Angel from the first world, who we don't really know much about yet, and the Angel from the last world, who we also don't really know much about, but he seems to be the most similar to our Angel. In fact I would imagine that all of the people from the last world are the most similar to our true selves. The change in their world only happened less then a year ago."

"That makes sense," Connor agreed. "I'll take the Angel from the last world then if that's cool with everyone."

"He's all yours," Wesley granted.

"I'm kind of curious about that last world too," Andrew finally spoke. He had been surprisingly silent during the whole conversation, which was a relief to most. "The only one left from that world is Spike right?"

Wesley thought for a moment, and then responded, "Yes I believe so."

"Cool," the blonde boy replied. "Then I will fulfill my duty to this mission by paring up with the Spike of the last world. I will find out everything he knows," he added with determination.

Buffy shook her head and laughed slightly. "Thanks, Andrew," she said with slight sarcasm in her ton, "We appreciate your help."

Andrew, not catching the sarcastic undertone, simply responded, "Happy to help, Buffy."

There were still seven left to be claimed, and the seven who hadn't picked yet all seemed to be deep in thought as to who they would like to talk to. After a few moments of silence, someone finally spoke.

"I guess I'll take one of the mes that are left," Buffy offered. "The vampire one kind of freaks me out though," she added as she scrunched up her face in disgust.

"Right then," Wesley nodded, "You can take the Buffy from the first reality."

The blonde slayer nodded in agreement as she nervously glanced in Faith's direction. "Sounds like a plan." The other slayer had a very good excuse for choosing the person that she chose, but Buffy unconsciously wondered if she hadn't done the same thing that she had just done, made up a different excuse to hide her curiosity.

"I guess I'll take vampire Buffy then," Xander said. "I was tossing around the idea of whether I wanted her or the other Buffy, but since our Buffy doesn't want her vampire self, I'll volunteer for that one. I'd like to see what Angelus meant by his little statement 'they're all human in this world.'"

"Are you sure, Xander?" Buffy asked with a ton of worry. "I don't think she'll be half as bad as Angelus, but she's a vampire and she used to be a slayer. That can't be a good combination."

"I'll be fine," he responded. "I'll stay out of chocking distance and we'll get along just great," he added with a small smile.

"Right, so all of the Buffies are taken care of," Angel began to recap. "We've got two Faiths, two Spikes and one uh…me."

"I'll take the last you, cupcake," Lorne offered. "I don't really know the two girls all that well and although I do know Spike I think I'd be a little more comfortable chatting with your handsome face. No offence, Spike," he added.

Spike simply shrugged his shoulders uncaring. "None taken," he replied.

"So now we have two Faiths and two Spikes left, with three different reality possibilities," Wesley began. "Personally, I'm equally as curious about all of these worlds so I'd be fine with taking whoever is the last unpicked."

"I'm pretty equally as curious as well," Willow agreed, "But I think I'll take the Spike that I'm supposedly 'dating' in his world." The red head actually placed air quotes around the word 'dating' when she said this.

Kennedy didn't look very happy to hear Willow's choice, but it made her feel a little bit better when she heard what Willow added next.

With a slightly disgusted look on her face, Willow added, "I'm dying to know what kind of drugs I was taking when I agreed to that."

Most of the other's laughed at Willow's comment. In fact, almost all of them laughed except for Spike himself. "Hey now, lets not get nasty there red," the blonde vampire chastised.

Ignoring Spike's remark, Kennedy went on to make her decision. "I'll take vampire Faith. That world is just oozing with crazy stories I bet. Plus I think it's the only one left that'll probably have me in it."

"Right then," Wesley nodded. "That simply leaves the Spike and Faith of the second world." He then turned to Fred with a smile. "Which would you like?"

Fred looked to the ceiling as she thought for a moment. "I'll take Spike," she answered. "No offence Faith, but I don't really know you all that well."

"It's no big," the dark haired slayer responded.

"Then I'll take Faith," Wesley concluded. He then breathed a sigh of relief at finally having a game plan. "That should be everyone."

"Right," Angel agreed. "I guess it's time to get started."

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Note: Hey everyone, I know this story can get extremely confusing with the large amount of characters so incase anyone is confused on who had who, here's how it breaks down:

Buffy1 – Buffy

Buffy2 – Dawn

Buffy 3 – Xander

Buffy4 – Spike

Angel1 – Lorne

Angel2 – Angel

Angel3 – Gunn

Angel4 – Connor

Spike1 – Willow

Spike2 – Fred

Spike3 – Harmony

Spike4 – Andrew

Faith1 – Faith

Faith2 – Wesley

Faith3 – Kennedy

Faith4 – Robin

From now it should get a little less confusing because I'll just be focusing on the one-on-ones and most of the content will consist of the stories that the alternate reality Buffies, Angels, Spikes and Faiths will be telling. It'll be set up a lot like the story that Angel3 (or Angelus) told in Chapter 4, _Vampire World_. Thanks so much for reading and please please please send reviews my way!!!


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